


Gods with Thunderbolts

by Lucy410



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-09
Updated: 2014-09-09
Packaged: 2018-02-16 18:26:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2280102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucy410/pseuds/Lucy410
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An archaeological dig unearths something dangerous</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gods with Thunderbolts

“Sarah!” The shout caught the blonde woman’s attention and she turned around. “I think you’re going to want to see this.”

Tucking her pony-tail up underneath her cap and sticking her trowel defiantly into what was so far proving to be barren soil, Sarah climbed out of the trench and headed towards a patch of ground on the ridge of the hill, the only place so far where they had found any decent archaeology. As she walked the woman crossed her fingers and muttered a quick prayer to Saint Helena, patron saint of archaeologists and, as any Romanist worth their salt would know, mother of Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor. Sarah smiled grimly, this was her first job as director of a dig and she hadn’t been surprised to find that everything was against her. It was June and yet for two weeks the sky had been overcast and a constant drizzle had depressed the spirits of all her diggers, it was no help that the only thing they had found so far was a deep ditch. Sarah shrugged and pulled up the zip on her waterproof coat, perhaps James would have some good news for her.

“What have you got?” Sarah peered down into the ditch and grimaced, the bottom was awash with mud and the end where they had cut through all the archaeology to find out how deep it really was, was fast filling up with water.

“You’re not going to like it.” Grimly James handed up his finds tray and then hoisted himself out of the trench.

Steeling herself Sarah searched through grimy pieces of pottery, most of it local coarse-ware, not one decent imported sherd in there. “Is this it?”

James shrugged. “So far. I’d say we’re down as far as the first or second century A.D. now. Hard to be more accurate so far.”

“Anything else?”

James smiled at the tone of desperation in her voice. “Only this.” He removed a glove and fished in a pocket of the reflective vest he was wearing. “Tell me what you think of that.”

Sarah took the small object, weighing it carefully in her hand as she did so. “It’s quite heavy.” She lifted it up into the light and inspected it more closely. Then she stared dumb-struck at James.

“It’s a pound coin!”

“From 1990. You want to tell me what a coin that’s only sixteen years old is doing in a two thousand year old deposit?”

“You must have dropped it.”

“No.”

“One of the others then.”

“I’m the only one working in this section. Besides this coin had only just been minted when it was dropped.”

“I believe that’s mine.”

An unfamiliar hand plucked the coin from Sarah’s fingers and she spun round indignantly. “Hey!”

The man standing just behind her was the only bright spot in the dismal landscape and she stared dumbfounded.

“You’re a very rude young woman,” he reproved her sternly. “Do you make a habit of helping yourself to other people’s possessions?”

“I’m an archaeologist.”

“In other words yes.” Sarah opened her mouth to argue with the stranger but he held up an admonishing hand and she was amazed to find herself closing it again.

“Better.” The man smiled, blue eyes lighting up and he ran a hand through his mop of shaggy blonde curls.

“Who are you?” James asked. “This site’s not open to the public.”

“I’m the Doctor.”

“Doctor who?”

But the Doctor had already turned back to Sarah and didn’t hear the question.

“You said that coin was yours,” Sarah looked up at the Doctor and pursed her lips.

The Doctor beamed. “You really are a most perspicuous female. I knew there must be a reason why I like humans so much.”

Sarah paused, momentarily taken aback by the comment and in any other circumstance she might have pursued it but right now there were more interesting things to be discussed.

“If you’re telling the truth,” she continued, her emphasis making it clear that she didn’t believe him, “how did it end up in my trench?”

“I must have dropped it,” the Doctor stuck his hands in his pockets and half-shrugged.

“Before we got here this morning.” Sarah grinned triumphantly at James.

“Precisely,” The Doctor reached out to thwack Sarah affectionately on the shoulder. “A.D. 193 to be exact.”

“What?”

“Ah. You thought I meant this morning.”

“But how could you be here then and now. It’s not possible.”

“My dear child, very few things are in actual fact impossible if you put your mind to it.” Sarah and James gaped at him. “In fact I helped dig this ditch.” The Doctor glanced around with a proprietorial air and then turned his gaze back to Sarah. “And now you’re digging it up?” His tone, which up to now had been light-hearted, had turned to steel.

“Digging what up?” James retorted. “Apart from this ditch there’s nothing here.”

“Nothing? Are you sure? I was here, I saw the foundations laid.”

“He’s right Doctor,” Sarah added gently. “We haven’t found anything.”

“You must have thought there was something here.” The Doctor was frowning.

“The air photographs. They were only taken last year.”

“You’ve still got them?”

“In the site hut.”

“I have to see them.”

“Okay.” Sarah shrugged and turned to lead the way across the field.

“I’ll get on,” James called after her. “See what else I can find.”

“No.” The Doctor snapped. “Wait here and don’t touch anything.” Then he strode away, easily catching up with Sarah and then overtaking her so that he was leading the way to the site hut.

“Silly old man.” James muttered as he lowered himself back into the ditch.

“Here.” Sarah pulled a folder out from under a pile of dog-eared context sheets and passed it across to the Doctor. “These photos were taken almost exactly a year ago. The lack of rain meant that any crop marks were really distinct.”

The Doctor spread the photographs out across the table and pored over them, his expression growing more and more troubled.

“The ditch we found,” Sarah traced the pale line with her finger. “We dug some test pits, here, here and here,” carefully she indicated each area. “We should have found something.”

“Someone took the stone,” the Doctor suggested hopefully.

“No,” she shook her head. “Even if the foundations had been robbed we still would have found evidence of occupation. From the photographs this looks as though it were a large temple complex but there’s nothing. No traces of any building, no votive offerings, no sign of who the temple might have been dedicated to.”

“Apollo Cunomaglos,” the Doctor intoned wearily. “Or at least that’s the name the locals gave him, it wasn’t his, not really.”

“It wasn’t his?” Sarah echoed. “Doctor, you make it sound as though this god was real.”

“He was.”

“But..”

Whatever she had been about to say was cut short by a scream.

“What was that?”

“Your friend James.” The Doctor replied. “I’m afraid he didn’t take my advice to stay out of the ditch.”

“What’s happening to him?”

“Hors d’oeuvre, I’m afraid.”

“Hors d’oeuvre? But that means..”

The Doctor spoke almost nonchalantly over his shoulder while he rummaged through a stack of cardboard boxes, throwing measuring tapes and plastic finds bags onto the floor beside him. “How many are there in your team?”

“Ten,” Sarah winced as another scream rang out.

“Should buy us enough time.”

“You’re just going to let those people out there die?” Sarah exploded. “Well you might be prepared to hide in here but I’m not.” She started towards the door and had reached out to take the handle when the Doctor leapt to his feet, an almost maniacal look in his eyes, his colourful frock-coat was covered in dust but his eyes flashed and held Sarah’s gaze.

“You’ll die too,” his voice was granite hard. “Then no one will know what happened here. You can’t save them but you can remember them.”

“Who are you?” Sarah let her hand drop to her side.

“A traveller,” now the danger of Sarah leaving the site hut had passed the Doctor had returned to his rummaging. “Just passing through.”

“Just like you were passing through almost two thousand years ago?”

“Almost exactly like that.” The Doctor paused, hands still deep inside a box and he sounded almost thoughtful when he said, “I didn’t intend to come back but the TARDIS had other ideas and she was right.”

“She?”

“My ship.”

“But this creature, whatever it is that’s out there killing people, killing my friends,” Sarah’s voice shook and for a moment she thought she might faint, “you set it free.”

“No.” The Doctor barked. “I bound him. The people built a temple here, to remember, to hold him.”

“But the temple’s not here anymore.”

“You do like to state the obvious,” the Doctor snapped.

“So if the temple’s not here..”

“There’s nothing holding dear old Apollo Cunomaglos back from death and destruction,” the Doctor finished.

“But I don’t understand. A temple can’t just vanish. Even supposing all the stone was robbed there still ought to be something there.”

“I underestimated him,” the Doctor muttered. “I should have realised that given enough time he would be able to break free.”

“Doctor?”

But the man held up an imperious hand. “Listen.”

“I don’t hear anything.”

“Precisely. He’s finished playing.”

“What now?”

“Now he comes for us.” The Doctor turned back to the boxes, his brow creased. “I just need to find some way to hold him, just temporarily.”

Sarah edged closed to the window and peered out. What she saw made her bite her lip and she swivelled round to look at the Doctor.

“Doctor?”

“Hmm.”

“What did you call him?”

“I didn’t, but the locals referred to it as Apollo Cunomaglos.”

“Well he doesn’t look like any statue of Apollo that I’ve ever seen.”

“What does he look like?”

“Old man, long robe, big beard. He looks like God.”

The Doctor clapped his hands together. “Of course.”

Sarah stared at him. “Of course what?”

“My dear girl, it’s perfectly straightforward. He’s projecting an image of your view of God.”

“You’re saying that.. that thing is God?”

“No. He’s simply projecting an image from your thoughts to immobilise you so it can eat at his leisure.” The Doctor smiled. “Quite clever really.”

“He’s reading my mind?”

“No. He's using low level telepathy. It’s quite crude actually as a hunting tactic. For example on Galatian Prime the creatures there will stun their prey by..”

“Doctor!”

“Sorry,” he apologised. “I got a little distracted, it happens sometimes.”

“How do you think we should stop it?”

“The question is how do you think we should stop it?”

“How do I know? I’ve never met this thing before.”

“Ah but he’s using your mind to create an image for himself and therefore he’s bound by what he finds there. So you should be able to think up a way of stopping him.”

Sarah frowned and shook her head. “I don’t think I can. How to contain God has never been something I’ve contemplated.”

“There must be something.” The Doctor urged.

“Well there’s a pentagram,” Sarah shook her head. “That’s supposed to have some sort of mystical power when it comes to gods and demons.”

The Doctor smiled and brandished a can of spray paint at her. “And I know just the thing to make it with.” He started toward the door but Sarah caught his sleeve.

“What are you doing?”

“Going outside.”

“But it’ll kill you.”

“Don’t be silly, come on.”

“You want me to go out there?”

“It won’t work unless you’re there.” The Doctor pointed out patiently. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.” Brazenly he swung the door open and stepped out into the damp air, pulling Sarah behind him. Hurrying a little way from the site hut the Doctor found a flat piece of ground and shook the spray paint impatiently.

“What are you doing? That thing is coming.”

“The pentagram will keep us safe.” The Doctor was using the paint to outline a large five-pointed star on the grass. Once he was finished he tossed away the aerosol and grabbed Sarah by the arm, pulling her into the centre of the star.

“You’re sure about this?”

“Of course,” the Doctor’s voice was full of confidence but he made sure that Sarah didn’t see him cross his fingers behind his back.

The figure of the beast-slash-god-slash-alien moved closer. Sarah began to shake, none of this should be happening to her, all she had wanted was a few quiet weeks of digging, maybe with some spectacular finds thrown in for good measure.

“Doctor!” The creature even sounded like God, or at least how she had always imagined God would sound, a big booming voice that shook the earth they were standing on and she wondered if it were really reading her thoughts.

“I left you bound,” the Doctor answered tartly, he almost sounded as though he were chastising the creature.

“But now I am unbound and free to finish what you so rudely interrupted.”

“You really think I’m going to let you start again?”

The figure shrugged. “I see no way in which you can stop me.”

“We’re safe in the pentagram, you can’t harm us.”

“True. However the rest of the humans are not protected. I will spend a long time feeding” 

The Doctor grimaced but he couldn’t deny the logic. “Any more bright ideas?” he asked, turning impatiently to Sarah.

“Me? You want me to come up with a plan?”

“And quickly,” the Doctor spoke urgently, “this creature is going to get bored of us soon.” He shot an angry look at Sarah and reached out to shake her. “There are around seven billion people on this planet; do you really want them all to die?”

“No!” Sarah glared at the Doctor and then turned her gaze towards the figure who was stalking slowly around the edge of the pentagram. “And do you know what; I stopped believing in God a long time ago.”

There was a moment of utter silence and then the figure vanished.

The Doctor stared and then he laughed. “Fantastic, absolutely brilliant. Only the human race,” he declared, turning to Sarah with a grin, “could turn a total lack of belief to their advantage.”

“Pleased I could help,” her legs had finally given way and Sarah sunk down onto the grass, shaking. “I don’t.. I can’t..”

“You really shouldn’t stammer young lady,” the Doctor reproved her, “it makes you seem unhinged.”

“Unhinged? After what I’ve just seen?” Sarah sighed. “Does this happen to you a lot?”

“Quite a lot.” The Doctor smiled. “You want to come with me?”

“Me?”

“You are very egotistical,” the Doctor remarked. “We should get on nicely together.”

“I..” She couldn’t think of what to say but when the Doctor offered her his hand she reached out and grasped it tightly.

“Will you come?” There was a look of yearning in the Doctor’s eyes and beneath his bravado Sarah sensed how vulnerable he was.

“As long as you don’t expect me to come up with the rescue plan every time.”

“Not every time no.” And the Doctor smiled.

The end


End file.
